Verbal-performance activities for optimizing foreign language education

Abstract

The modern world, characterized by dynamic changes, rapid development of ICT and globalization processes sets new challenges to present-day education. This research aims at investigating the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education. A pedagogical experiment was conducted in authentic environment with the participation of 99 pupils aged 10 to 11 who formed an experimental and a control group. The study combined qualitative and quantitative approach. It measured pupils’ entry and exit levels of practical English knowledge and communicative skills and also traced the effect of the experimental education on the pupils from the experimental group. The interpretative analyses of the results revealed that applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education led to higher achievements in terms of knowledge and communicative competence for the pupils from the experimental group compared to the progress of the children from the control group. A measurement of the attitude of the pupils from the experimental group towards applying verbal-performance activities in the educational process proved the potential of the method to increase children’s motivation for learning. The findings of this research confirm the need of further studies on the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in a broader context of school education.